My 




i^\„>~-CL 



J 



^ Harvard University, 

7 Jan., 1891. 

At a meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences held on 
Tuesday, Jan. 6th, 1891, the committee appointed to prepare 
a statement of the Faculty's reasons for its proposals relating 
to the reduction of the College course presented their report. 
The report was accepted ; and the Faculty directed that it be 
forwarded, together with a statement prepared by dissenting 
members of the Faculty, to the Corporation and Board of 

Overseers. 

FRANK BOLLES, Secretary. 



The College Faculty's proposals* of March 26th, 1890, which re- 
ceived the approval of the Corporation and are now before the Board 
of Overseers, have been but imperfectly understood by the graduates 
and undergraduates of the University and by the educated public. 
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences f welcomes, therefore, the opportu- 
nity afforded it by the vote of the Overseers on the 22nd of October to 
make an exposition of the problem which the College Faculty was 
called upon to solve, and of the considerations which determined its 
action. 

Of the four measures proposed, the second — to reduce the number 
of courses required for the A.B. to sixteen — was far from command- 
ing general assent in the Faculty ; but the other three were adopted by 
strong majorities (from 3 to 1 to 6 to 1). The discussion was chiefly 
on the second proposal. When the final vote was taken on that 
proposition there were found in the affirmative the President, the 

* 1. That the requirements for the degree of A.B. be expressed, under suitable 
regulations with regard to length of residence and distribution of work, in terms 
of courses of study satisfactorily accomplished. 

2. That the number of courses required for the degree be sixteen. 

3. That when a student enters College there shall be placed to his credit 
towards satisfying the foregoing requirement of sixteen courses, (1) any "ad- 
vanced studies " on which he has passed in his admission examination beyond the 
number required for admission, and (2) any other college studies which he has 
anticipated. 

4. That a student may be recommended for the degree of A.B. in the middle, 
as well as at the end, of the academic year. 

t In June last, the College Faculty was succeeded by the Faculty of Arts and 
Sciences, a body the personal composition of which is essentially the same as 
that of the former College Faculty, but which has larger powers. 



UJ 



Dean, Professors Lane, Norton, B6cher, Greenongh, Toy, Paine, 
Goodale, Palmer, Trowbridge, James, J. W. Wiiite, Peabody, Lan- 
man, Wright, and Lyon, Assistant Professors Bartlett, de Sumiehrast, 
Sheldon, Sanderson, Royce, Francke, Yon Jagemann, Wendell, 
Channing, Taussig, and Hart, Instructors Moore, Clymer, Parker, 
Gross, and Wolff, and Tutor Morgan (34) ; and in the negative Pro- 
fessors Child, Cooke, Everett, A. S. Hill, Nash, C. J. White, 
Shaler, Allen, Jackson, H. B. Hill, Chaplin, Byerly, Mark, Mac- 
vane, Assistant Professors Davis, Cohn, Briggs, and Hall, and 
Listructors Snow, Bendelari, Huntington, and Kittredge (22). 

Four members of the Faculty were in Europe, of whom. Professors 
Dunbar and J. M. Peirce would have voted in the affirmative, and 
Professors Goodwin and Emerton in the negative. Professors Hagen, 
Whitney, and Farlow were absent wJien the vote was taken, and did 
not record their opinions when subsequently invited by the Faculty'' 
to do so. Professor B. O. Peirce was disabled by serious illness. 
Every member of the Faculty as then composed is thus accounted for. 

The shades of opinion were numerous, and there were not a few 
cases in which neither an affirmative nor a negative vote expressed 
satisfactorily the real opinions of the voter. 

In order to make clear the force and scope of the proposal to 
reduce to sixteen the number of courses required for the A.B. it is 
desirable in the first place to state precisely what the present require- 
ment is. 

The requirement in March last, stated in courses, was eighteen and 
four tenths ; but the four tenths consisted of two series of illustrated 
lectures intended for Freshmen — one on elementary chemistry and 
one on elementary physics, neither series numbering more than four- 
teen lectures. In June last, at the request of the department of 
physics, the Faculty ordered that the examination on the lectures in 
physics be discontinued ; and they are only awaiting a similar request 
from the department of chemistry to discontinue the examination in 
chemistry also. The actual requirement is, therefore, eighteen and 
one fifth courses, from which the one fifth maj' at any time disappear. 
For the purposes of the present statement the number of courses now 
required for the degree of A.B. will be considered to be eighteen. 
This number of eighteen includes, however, an arbitrary rating of 
twelve Sophomore themes and six Junior forensics (rewritten if re- 
quired) as one course.* 

* This rating is but a recent one — the number of forensics having lately 
been reduced without reducing the time to be devoted to the subject — and is 
liable to change. 



It should be observed that a "course" in the language of the 
College regulations is not a definite and invariable quantity. It 
ordinarily means a course of instruction in which the instructor meets 
his class three times a week throughout the year ; but there are some 
advanced courses in which two meetings a week with the instructor 
are held to be sufficient. Again, a course is ordinarily supposed to 
occupy one fourth of the students' whole working time, and the 
instructor may consequently demand of his class an amount of 
reading and study which fairly represents one fourth of their year's 
work. Yet this estimate is strictly applicable, under the regulations, 
only to Seniors ; for a Junior must write six forensics, and a 
Sophomore twelve themes, beside taking four courses, while a 
Freshman is actually required to take five courses. Most of the 
courses open to Freshmen being also open to Sophomores, Juniors, 
and Seniors, it follows from the requirements made of Freshmen that 
a course which must not be too severe for one fifth of a Freshman's 
time may be, and often is, counted for one quarter of a Senior's 
time, and for more than one fifth of the time of a Junior or a 
Sophomore. Furthermore, the personal qualities of different instruc- 
tors affect very much the amount of work which their several courses 
represent. One instructor is more alert and stimulating than another ; 
one is constantly urging his class to read copiously, make notes, and 
write theses, another defines accurately and in detail the work de- 
manded ; the examination-papers of one are more various and diflQcult 
than those of another. A "course" then is not a fixed quantity. 

Whether eighteen or sixteen be the number of courses required by 
the regulations for the degree of A.B., the real requirement expressed 
in work or attainments can only be maintained by the discretion and 
fidelitj' of the individual instructors and of the Faculty. It would be 
easy to reduce the number of courses to sixteen and yet increase the 
real requirements for the degree ; and equally easy to maintain the 
number of courses at eighteen and yet diminish the requirements. 
Between 1860 and 1870 the number of courses required was reduced 
by a little more than three, between 1870 and 1880 it was again 
reduced by one, and between 1880 and 1890 the number was further 
reduced by a half course ; yet during all three decades the real require- 
ments for the degree, expressed in work done, were undoubtedly 
increased. In all these cases the Faculty, in reducing the number of 
courses required for the degree, had no intention whatever of reducing 
the requirements in substance. They reduced the prescribed number 
of courses, but raised the average standard in the individual courses, 
with the result that the work of the average student was both increased 
and improved, a part of the improvement being due to the greater con- 



centration of his work. The more mature and advanced the student, 
the greater the advantage of reasonable concentration. In the future, 
as in the past, what is reasonable and desirable in this respect can 
best be determined from time to time by observation and cautious 
experiment under the direction of the Faculty. 

In voting to reduce the number of courses from eighteen to six- 
teen, the majority of the Faculty had, however, a purpose which had 
not influenced the Faculty in making any of the previous reductions, 
and it was the novelty of this purpose which made it appropriate 
to lay the votes of March last before the President and Fellows. 
The majority desired so to arrange the requirements for the degree 
of A.B. that any ambitious and capable student might take it in three 
years, or in three years and a half, on conditions which should be 
in every respect advantageous. The majority of the Faculty con- 
sidered the present requirement of eighteen courses disadvantageous 
for such a student ; since it would be likely to tempt him either to 
choose some courses because they were easy rather than profitable 
for him, or to be content in some courses with only moderate attain- 
ments. Experience has abundantly proved that eighteen courses can 
be accomplished in three years by an able student who knows how 
to avail himself of the permissible reliefs (particularly if considerable 
parts of the vacations be emplo3^ed for reading, or for laboratory or 
field work) ; but it seemed to the majority of the Faculty that better 
work would be done, on the whole, by candidates for the degree in 
three years or three years and a half, if the prescribed number of 
courses, and therefore of examinations to be passed, Avere reduced from- 
eighteen to sixteen. In voting for this reduction, however, they did 
not propose to compel anybody to seek the degree in less time than four 
years, but only to offer a thoroughl}^ advantageous option to any one 
who had a strong motive for reducing the traditional period for obtain- 
ing the A.B. They did not conceive that the liberal discipline received 
by those competent students, who should obtain the degree of A.B. 
in three years, or three years and a half, on sixteen courses, would 
necessarily be less valuable than that received by similar students who 
now take the same degree in four years on eighteen courses. Since 
a main end of liberal training is a quick and strong mental grasp on 
a variety of subjects, whether novel or familiar, the majority of the 
Faculty conceived that the more strenuous and concentrated labor of 
the shorter course might achieve this end quite as often as the less 
strenuous labor of the longer. They also believed that a considerable 
proportion of all those who took the degree in less time than four 
years would seek a higher degree in arts, and that this further resi- 



dence might particularly be expected of the intellectually ambitious 
whose fathers can afford to give them every advantage, and of those 
who are going to be teachers. The}^ relied on the third proposal 
of the Faculty to diminish the stress of the College demands upon 
students who should seek the A.B. in three years. 

The proposed requirements for the degree are obviously much more 
elastic than the present requirements. The number of courses is 
indeed fixed at sixteen ; but the term of residence may be three 
years, three years and a half, or four years. How would these 
combined changes affect that considerable proportion of students 
who because of defective preparation, slender parts, undeveloped 
tastes, or unawakened ambition might be expected not to avail 
themselves of the option to take the degree in less time than four 
years ? The experience of the Facult}^ under the present s^'stem 
justifies the confident expectation that the great body of these 
students would make a faithful and profitable use of all their 3*ears 
spent as undergraduates. Most of those who needed four 3'ears to 
obtain the degree would take more than the required sixteen courses, 
following the present common practice of taking extra courses. 
Others would confine themselves to the required number, but would 
select, in one or both of the last two years, advanced courses to 
which their whole time could be advantageously given ; and the 
work of such students would often be better distributed than it is 
now. As to that small proportion of undergraduates on whom 
pressure must be brought to prevent idleness, there is nothing in 
the proposed measures to preclude the maintenance of the present 
requirement that every student, unless good reasons for exceptional 
treatment are shown, must take at least four courses in each year 
of his residence. The majority supposed that the Faculty would in 
no case depart from the principle, emphasized in the new regulations 
adopted two years ago, of requiring every student to show that he 
is making a good use of his opportunities. Indeed, the clause in 
the first proposal of the Faculty — ' ' under suitable regulations 
with regard to length of residence and distribution of work" — 
was intended to cover the prevention of both over-work and under- 
work. 

The new element in the main proposal adopted by the Faculty is, 
therefore, not the reduction of the number of courses required for 
the degree, such reductions, as already stated, having been repeatedly 
made since 1860 with good results, and not the expression of the 
requirements for the A.B. in terms of courses of study, for that 
method of expressing and recording academic standing is inevitable 
under a wide elective system, and has accordingly^ been explicitly 



6 

stated in the College Catalogue ever since 1876. The Regulations 
have always assumed, however, that the period of residence for 
the A.B. is regnlaiiy four years, and that the student is normally 
to accomplish a specified number of courses each year. The novel 
feature in the action of the Facult}' is their proposition to facil- 
itate systematicall}' the obtaining of the A.B. in less time than four 
years by zealous and able students who wish to economize their 
time or their money. In this new dii'ection, liowever, the majority 
propose no sweeping change ; they only propose to alter the present 
requirements to that limited extent which will give the student a fair 
option on taking the degree in less time than four 3'ears — an option 
from the use of which safe conclusions can be drawn after a trial of 
six or eight years. For the student to exercise some choice as to the 
time to be spent in obtaining the degree of A.B. , in addition to the 
free choice of the subjects of study on which it shall be taken, seems 
to them a reasonable libertj'. 

The differences of opinion which exist in the Faculty as to the 
policy of the University in respect to the degree of A.B. are not due 
only to differences of judgment about the effect of that polic\' upon 
the standard of scholarship within the University, but even more to 
different views of the educational situation in the United States, and 
to different judgments as to the action which that situation calls for. 
An examination of the principal features of the educational situation, 
and of the main lines of policy which it suggests, is required to bring 
out the reasons which influenced the majorit}' of the Faculty. 

I. The age of the average student on entering Harvard College 
is and has been for thirty years past undesirably high. For eleven 
years past the average age at entrance (Oct. 1) has been just about 
nineteen years ; and in the judgment of the Faculty this average is a 
trustworthy and significant figure.* So far as information can 
be obtained about the other New England colleges, the probability 
is that their students are about as old on the average as those 
of Harvard. Graduates of other New England colleges who 
enter the Harvard professional schools are on the average some- 
what older than Harvard Bachelors of Arts of the same year. 

* If any be inclined to distrust an average, because it might be affected by a 
few extreme cases on either side — although in this case it is not — the same 
facts can easily be put into another form. Omitting all persons under fifteen or 
over twenty-one, 46^ per cent, of the persons between those ages who entered 
the College in the eleven years from 1880 to 1890 inclusive were between 15 and 
18i, and 53^ per cent, were between 18i and 21 ; or in other words, more than 



The Faculty are not without hope that the average age at entrance 
may be somewhat reduced, and they will not cease to urge that 
the primary and secondar}^ schools should prepare their pupils 
well on all the subjects required for admission by the time the 
boys are eighteen ; but the Facult}^ see no reason to believe 
that the average age at entrance will fall below eighteen, although 
boys who' are exceptionally bright and stead}^, and who have excep- 
tional advantages, may undoubtedly be made ready for college at 
an earlier age. The college requirements for admission have been 
decidedly raised during the past twenty years, the preparatory schools 
give a much greater variety of instruction than formerly, and their 
discipline is for the most part appropriate to boys who are not more 
than eighteen years old. On the other hand eighteen is young enough, 
though not too young, for the ordinary boy to venture into the inevit- 
able freedom of college life, and to exercise the self-control which that 
freedom is intended to develop. The members of the Faculty, majority 
and minority alike, see cleaiiy that the present teaching functions of 
the best secondary schools are very much like the functions of Har- 
vard College less than two generations ago ; they look forward to, 
and indeed are steadily trying to produce, a continuous develop- 
ment and improvement in the instruction given in those schools ; 
and they recognize the fact that important changes in the functions 
of American secondary schools, and in their relations to the com- 
munity, involve corresponding changes in the functions and relations 
of the American colleges. The majority of the Faculty think that 
in addition to receiving from the schools better prepared boys at an 
earlier age, the College should facilitate an optional shortening of 
the time spent on its own course of study leading to the A.B. 

half were over 18i years of age. Moreover, the percentage of Freshmen who 
enter under eighteen has greatly diminished during the past thirty-five years, and 
the percentage who enter over nineteen has greatly increased. 

1856-66. 1880-90. 



ering between 


15 and 


16 


62 


12 


" " 


16 " 


17 


267 


130 


" " 


17 " 


18 


446 


649 


U a 


18 " 
18i " 


18?^ 
19 


}329{ 


581 
515 




19 " 


20 


160 


748 


U 1( 


20 " 


21 


62 


314 


Total " 


15 " 


21 


1326 or 93^% 


2949 or 92% 


Under 15 . . 


. . . 


6 


4 


Over 


21 . . 


. . . 


85 


252 



Total number in eleven years, 1417 3205 



8 

II. In those great departments of education which lie beyond 
the college walls ^ the professional schools of law, medicine, and 
theology — prodigious changes have taken place within twenty 
years, and are still going on. These professions still claim one 
half of all the Harvard Bachelors of Arts. The training given 
for each of these three professions is much more thorough, vari- 
ous, and prolonged than it used to be ; and for the professions 
of law and medicine an adequate training is ver}^ generally en- 
forced by rules of courts or legislative enactments. The present 
period of professional training for the best trained men in these pro- 
fessions may fairl}^ be said to be four j^ears. How great is the 
improvement iu education for the learned professions may be inferred 
from the historj" of the Harvard schools since 1870. In the Law 
School the course for the degree was eighteen mouths long in 1870 ; 
it is now three years long. The required course of the Medical 
School covered in 1870 about four months in each of three years, 
the same public lectures being repeated everj' year, so that the 
student could not follow a properly graded course ; the re- 
quired course now covers nine mouths in each of three j^ears, 
and the instruction is different in each year of the student's 
course. In addition, a voluntary fourth-j^ear's course is main- 
tained, and a great variet}' of instruction for graduates is given. 
In 1870 neither the Law School nor the Medical School had 
any examination for admission, and the Law School had no 
examination for its degree. Both schools now require admission 
examinations, and their degrees are protected by strict annual 
examinations. The Divinity School had in 1870 a low standard 
for admission, and, giving no degree, had no examinations for 
graduation. The School now requires that all candidates for its 
degree should be Bachelors of Arts before entering the School, and 
gives its degree on examinations which cover an ample and vari- 
ous three-years' course of study. It also offers much instruction for 
graduates in divinity. Simultaneously with the increase in its amount 
the methods of instruction in all these Schools have been greatl}^ im- 
proved. 

These striking changes in the Harvard schools only exemplify 
in a high degree a transformation in professional education which 
has been going on all over the United States. The transformation 
means that much more time than formerly must be given to his pro- 
fessional training by every ambitious candidate for the learned 
professions, and that much more money must be spent on it ; and 
also that the training itself is much more valuable as mental disci- 
pline than it formerly was. 



9 

The ultimate influence of these facts on the resort to colleges is 
not doubtful. The professional training seems to the youth and 
to his parents the prime necessity. If both college and professiona 
training cannot be afforded, it is the college training which is 
sacrificed ; and the more time the professional training takes, and 
the better its quality as intellectual discipline, the more likely is 
the college training to be dispensed with bj young men who are 
pressed for either time or money. Moreover, since the expansion 
of professional education is unquestionably for the good of the 
professions and the public, and has by no means reached as yet in 
the United States the development which it has received in Europe, 
this influence adverse to college education will grow stronger and 
not weaker with time. 

As matters now stand, one half of the students who enter Harvard 
College — that half, namely, who become ministers, lawyers, or 
physicians — enter, on the average, at nineteen, take the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts at twenty- two and three quarters, and complete 
their training for the learned professions at twenty-flve and three 
quarters or twenty-six and three quarters years. In the opinion of 
the majority of the Faculty these ages are all unreasonably high ; 
and, since the}^ cannot recommend any abridgment of the period 
of professional education, they desire so to frame' their own require- 
ments that it shall be possible, and even advantageous, for many 
young men to enter college at eighteen, to obtain the A.B. at 
twenty-one, and to complete their professional education at twenty- 
five, — and this without compelling all to abbreviate their college 
course. They regard the present state of things as very burdensome 
to parents, and as injurious to the state because it tends to confine 
the benefits of university education to the children of people more 
than ordinarily prosperous. 

An earlier age of graduation is desirable also for that considerable 
proportion of Harvard Bachelors of Arts — from one fifth to one third 
of their number — who go into business after graduation. Three 
methods of procedure would be open to this class of students : the first 
would lead to the A.B. at twenty-one, supposing the entrance age to be 
eighteen, the second to the A.B. at twenty-two, and the third to the 
A.B. and A.M. at twenty-two. Either the first or last of these methods 
would, in the judgment of the majority of the Faculty, have decided 
advantages over the present method, while the variet}^ of possible pro- 
cedures would secure all interests. For some members of the Faculty 
one of the strongest arguments in favor of the proposed changes 
is the desirability of increasing the attraction of liberal education 
not only for those who mean to enter the professions, but also 



10 

for those intending to go into business life.. A larger infusion of 
liberal culture seems to them essential for the wiser use of the 
rapidly growing wealth of the business men of the community. 

III. Within twenty years another great change has been made at 
Harvard University, and at several other leading American univer- 
sities, which affects the relative position among degrees of the A.B. 
degree, and has, therefore, in the opinion of the majorit}' of the 
Faculty, an important bearing on the requirements for that degree. 
The Graduate School has been created, and has developed a body of 
advanced instruction in the arts and sciences that bears alwaj'S a 
larger and larger proportion to the body of more elementar}^ courses 
which are mainly resorted to by candidates for the Bachelor's degree. 
This School attracts an increasing number of students, who are already 
Bachelors of Arts or Science, and gives after residence and on exam- 
ination three degrees (A.M., Ph.D., and S.D.), the value of which 
is every year more clearly recognized. In 1869 Harvard University 
gave no public and regular instruction in the arts and sciences 
beyond what was required for the Bachelor's degree ; now a 
considerable part of the time of most of the best teachers con- 
nected with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is devoted to the 
instruction of persons who have already received the Bachelor's 
degree. The degree of Bachelor of Arts, therefore, no longer 
marks the goal and end of liberal culture. All students who mean to 
be teachers, publicists, men of letters, or competent journalists, must 
now-a-days seek one of the higher degrees, and for the majority of 
capable students the Bachelor's degree in arts or science will here- 
after mark a stage of their progress towards a higher degree in arts 
or science, or towards a professional degree. 

It has been supposed b}' some persons that the majority of the Faculty 
were so anxious to build up the Graduate School that they were will- 
ing to accomplish that end at the expense of Harvard College, and 
so eager to increase the use of the higher degrees in arts that they 
could not appreciate the objections to lessening the time required 
for obtaining the A.B. But this is not the case. It is certain — 
and the fact deserves special consideration — that the requirements 
for the A.B., after the adoption of the sixteen-course proposition, 
would be decidedly higher — considering the increase inthe require- 
ments for admission — than they were in 1872, when the develop- 
ment of the Graduate School was begun. All parties in the Faculty 
agree that the influence of the Graduate School on the College is 
highly beneficial. It is the unanimous desire of the whole Faculty 
to build up the Graduate School, and to promote the use of the 
higher degrees. 



11 

IV. The majority of the Faculty recognize in the fact that the 
number of students in American colleges has not increased pro- 
portionately with the increase of the population at large, and in the 
very small proportion of college-bred men in the learned* and sci- 
entific professions, signs that the traditional four-years' course for 
the A.B. may wisely be made more elastic ; and they can find 
no warrant in the educational history of older nations for the 
American practice of holding the best educated young men back 
from professional study until they are twenty-three years of age, 
or more. Thus, at Oxford and Cambridge professional studies may be 
counted to a large extent for the A.B., — both the '' pass " and the 
" honor " degree — and the common period of residence for the ordi- 
nary A.B. is three years, although the A.B. in England has been almost 
exclusively a privilege of the well-to-do ; the German youth leaves the 
Gymnasium at from nineteen to twenty years of age on the average, 
and at once is free to begin in the University his preparation for some 
learned profession ; the French boy is even younger when he chooses a 
career and begins professional study. European experience all indi- 
cates that where secondary schools are highlj^ organized and well con- 
ducted, and professional education amply developed, four years of 
liberal study cannot be maintained between the school period and the 
period of professional stud}'. Although Harvard College, and the New 
England colleges tal^en together, have grown in proportion to the 
growth of the population of the United States, American colleges as 
a whole have not-t The majority of the Faculty believe that the 
common American college is already in an anomalous and untenable 
position, and that it will get more and more out of relation with its 
surroundings, as secondary schools improve, unless it gradually 
raises the grade of its work, and makes its requirements for the 

* According to the Eeport for 1887-88 of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 
the percentages of the stvidents of theology, law, and medicine in that year avIio 
had received a degree in arts or science before entering upon their professional 
studies were very low, — namely, of students of theology 23 per cent, of law 18 
per cent, and of medicine not quite 8 per cent. 

fin the ten-year period from 1875 to 1884 inclusive, the universities and 
colleges included in the tables published by the Commissioner of Education at 
Washington show an increase in the number of their students of only 11 per 
cent. In the ten-year period from 1876 to 1885, the increase is 16 per cent., but 
this higher percentage of increase is due to the abnormally small number of 
students in 1876, — 2400 below the number in 1875. Some doubt has lately been 
thrown upon the rate of increase of the total population ; but during the periods 
mentioned this rate was certainly not lower than 20 per cent and not higher than 
30 per cent. Since 1885 the universities and colleges have been more prosperous 
than in the preceding decade. 



12 

A.B. more elastic. It is to be observed that the most prosperous 
and serviceable American colleges are those in which the most 
liberal changes have already been made. The great majority 
of the colleges enumerated in the list of the Commissioner of 
Education are now doing secondary school work for a year, 
many of them for two years, out of their nominal course of 
four years. The improvement of secondarj^ education will grad- 
ually deprive them of this work ; and then the question which 
alread}^ presses upon Harvard College will confront them. Mean- 
time all the students in these numerous institutions are counted 
as of college grade, — as in the statistics just now given, — whereas 
many of them are really of school grade. One may reasonabl}^ doubt 
the accuracy both of the general census and of the college census ; 
but thus much is clear — there is no such increasing diffusion of 
liberal education as the country needs, or as its growing wealth 
should produce. 

Y. The members of the Faculty have had before them, during the 
whole of the discussion on the optional shortening of the College 
course, a feasible method of reducing the age at which young men 
who go through college and professional school are now ready to 
practice their professions, without reducing the college course for 
persons who do not go through a professional school. This method, 
when reduced to its simplest terms, consists in counting certain 
agreed-upon courses of professional instruction both for the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts and for the professional degree. There are members 
of both the majority and the minority of the Faculty on the vote 
of March last who prefer to any other this method of meeting an evil 
which seems to them real ; but a large majority of the Faculty are 
opposed to this double counting of professional courses, in spite of 
the simplicity and effectiveness of the method. It would easily save 
one year for students of law or medicine, and two years for students 
of theology, and it would be an inducement to students in Harvard 
College to continue their studies in one of the Harvard professional 
schools. There is also an apparent reasonableness in conceding 
something on the A.B. to a student who is going to remain in the 
University one, two, or three j^ears more, — something which need 
not be conceded to the student who seeks the A.B. and nothing 
beyond. Moreover, it brings the strong motive of professional aspira- 
tion "nearer to the college student. On the other hand, this method 
confounds all distinctions between pure and applied science, alters 
gravely the signification of the A.B., has no clear natural limits 
which might prevent its abuse, and in the absence of treaties between 



13 

different universities is not applicable to all candidates for the A.B. 
who intend to study for a learned profession, but only to a part of 
them. Universities which maintain a variety of professional schools 
would probably be benefitted b}^ it, so far as numbers go ; and smaller 
colleges would probably have to ask a similar privilege at university 
professional schools, and reconcile themselves to the loss of a 
part of their students at the end of the Junior year. Considered 
as a reduction of the requirements for the A.B., this method 
is much more serious than the conservative proposal now made ; 
indeed, it may fairly be called revolutionary, for it abolishes the 
fundamental distinctior^ between liberal and professional studies, 
and has a scope which no man can measure. Yet this method 
is the only alternative to the modest recommendation of the Faculty 
which obtained any strong support during the prolonged discussion. 

Finally, the Faculty have not acted in this matter under stress 
of losses, or of declining prosperity, in Harvard College, or from any 
inordinate desire to see the number of students in the College or in 
the Graduate School increased. The proposition under considera- 
tion is to try a cautious but promising experiment on a number of 
persons which at first would presumably be small. If the experiment 
should meet a want distinctly felt by a considerable number of 
students and parents, the number of persons taking the degree in 
less time than four years would gradually increase ; if not, the 
usual period of residence would remain unchanged. The major- 
it}^ of the Faculty believe that it is for the interest of Harvard 
College, of all American colleges, and of liberal education in the 
United States, that the experiment they have recommended should 
be tried. They believe that the reduction of the time required for 
obtaining the Bachelor's degree, producing as it does the double 
economy of both money and time, will open the doors of the College 
to many youths who are now prevented by want of time or money from 
entering them. The}^ believe that every interest concerned would gain 
by the adoption of the policy which they recommend — the commu- 
nity, through more boys going to college from a greater variety 
of households, and more professional men receiving a liberal edu- 
cation ; the students who should still spend four or five years 
under the charge of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as candi- 
dates for the A.B. and the A.M. or Ph.D., through working in 
smaller groups, with more select comrades, and with more pro- 
fessional aims ; the candidates for the A.B. in three years, or 
three years and a half, through the brisker pace, the nearer dsiy of 
reckoning, and the closer touch with the realities of life. All parties 



14 

agree that the main question concerns not the relation of the College 
to the professional schools, but the interests of liberal education in 
the widest sense ; although the majority believe that the measures 
recommended to the Governing Boards would in a few years sensibly 
reduce the average age at which Harvard Bachelors of Arts now 
enter the professional schools. 

It is in view of the importance to the community at large of extend- 
ing as widely as possible the benefits of a liberal education that the 
adoption of the proposed scheme is especially desired by the majority 
of the Faculty. They believe that the nation suffers both politically 
and socially from the lack of a due proportion of men who have had 
the advantage of that intellectual and moral discipline which colleges 
offer, and that the measures which they recommend will contribute 
to the correction of this grave deficiency. It is their conviction that 
the University wiU thus render its best service to the nation, and will 
thus bring itself more and more into influential relations with the 
national life. They desire to maintain the highest standard of learn- 
ing, and at the same time to diffuse that learning to the utmost. 



Harvard University, 

December 23, 1890. 

In accordance with the request of the Board of Overseers, 
the undersigned respectfully submit the following statement of 
their reasons for opposing the proposal of the College Faculty 
for the reduction of the College course, which was adopted in 
March, 1890 : — 

Our first and strongest objection to the plan is, that we believe it will 
inevitably lower the standard of our College education and degrade 
the Bachelor's degree. Whether the proposed reduction be great or 
small, the same momentous principle is involved. The smallest 
reduction would be a step backwards, and would reverse the best 
traditions of the College and the fixed policy of the past thirty years. 
This period has witnessed a slow but steady raising of the standard 
of the degree, as the result of a radical improvement in the whole 
system of teaching. We can look back on this time with pride and 
satisfaction, feeling that everj;^ opportunity to elevate and broaden 
our scholarship has been eagerly improved. If this long and honor- 
able record is now to be closed and our policy reversed, if our degree 
is to be degraded by our own free act, we shall be compelled to 
abandon our position as leaders in American scholarship and to take 
our place without excuse in the second rank. It must never be for- 
gotten that, with all our improvement, we have not yet reached any 
such height of scholarship that we can afford to lower our standard, 
— indeed, we cannot lower it without positive discredit. 

To a few of us, who have taken part in all the changes of the past 
thirty years, the present proposal seems to threaten to destroy by one 
blow nearly all that has been gained during that period by the per- 
sistent labor of a whole generation of scholars. The present Senior 
year may fairly be said to represent the net gain in scholarsliip which 
Harvard College has made since 1860 ; and if this year is lost, we 
must begin again at the foot of the long and toilsome hill which we 
have slowly climbed. 

But, it is argued, a reduction in the number of courses from eighteen 
to sixteen would not result in lowering the standard of the A.B. No 
one will be so bold as to deny that it would be possible to select 
sixteen courses which should represent as large and as valuable an 



16 

amount of work for the student as eighteen other courses which could 
be named. But it should be borne in mind that those who advise a 
reduction in the number of courses have not even hinted that they 
would limit the selection of the proposed sixteen to studies more 
difficult than our present average courses. On the contrary, it seems 
to us perfectl}^ plain that, if the number of courses is reduced, prac- 
ticall}^ the same list of studies, some easy, some difficult, will be 
offered to the student as at present. He is now obliged to take 
eighteen ; he will then be obliged to take only sixteen ; and the 
inference is inevitable that the sum total of the requirements for the 
degree will be less then than now. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive 
of any scheme by which certain courses should be selected for the 
shorter term of study, which could command the general assent of the 
Faculty. The proposed reduction from eighteen to sixteen courses 
thus carries no compensation, while the earlier reduction from twenty 
to eighteen was balanced by the more advanced character of the 
instruction which was rendered possible by the simultaneous exten- 
sion of the elective system. 

Or are we to suppose that with the present eighteen courses the 
energies of our students are overtaxed, and that, relieved of two 
courses, they would really accomplish more? We are not aware that 
either the Faculty or the public believes that the average Harvard 
student is overworked ; and our legislation must haA^e in view the 
average, not the exceptionally good nor the exceptionally bad, stu- 
dent. The public, at times over-credulous, but on the whole dis- 
cerning, undoubtedly believes that our students suffer more from 
undue indulgence in athletics and society than from over-study. 
But, supposing the public to be wrong, have we any evidence 
showing what the students themselves think regarding the number of 
courses? Yes. Bearing on this point we have the important fact 
that a large number of students voluntarily choose more than eighteen 
courses. Although the extra courses are sometimes after a time 
abandoned, the number of those who successfully pursue such courses 
to the end is surprisingly large. To this considerable number of 
students, at least, it is evident that eighteen courses do not seem 
excessive. 

Nor is there any force in the objection that with eighteen courses 
a student is tempted to desultory study, while with sixteen he 
would limit his range with advantage. The distinction should be 
borne clearly in mind that eighteen different courses and eighteen 
distinct and unrelated subjects are very different things. Most of 
the departments offer a considerable number of courses, several 



17 

offering more than twenty ; and it is thought by many of the Faculty 
that, on the whole, the tendency is rather to too great specialization 
on the part of the less mature students. The apprehension of the 
Faculty is shown by the existence of the rule that Freshmen cannot 
take more than two elective courses in the same department. For the 
more mature and advanced students who might profitablj^ specialize 
their work, the Board of Overseers may, perhaps, not be aware that 
a special provision already exists in some departments, by which, 
with the consent of the Faculty, a good student is allowed to count 
double work in a single difficult course for two whole courses towards 
his degree. 

Perhaps it may be thought unfair to discuss the present plan as if 
it proposed to reduce the college course to three years by cutting off 
the Senior j-ear. But it is the right and the duty of those who are 
asked to take a given step, to inquire what further steps are likely to 
follow the one proposed, and especially what is the intention of those 
who propose it. This is all the more necessary when the step 
involves the reversal of the long established policj^ of a great 
institution, so that an error, if made, cannot easily be corrected. 
No one who has followed the history of the present movement can 
doubt that the object of those most interested in its success is to 
secure a three-years' course. No one seriously doubts that the 
actual proposal, which relates to the work of half a year, is only an 
entering wedge, and that more will be demanded for consistency's 
sake if this fails on trial to secure at least one additional year for 
professional study. The Faculty's plan would lead to many 
difficulties if it should be adopted as it stands. It can hardly be 
expected that many would avail themselves of the privilege of 
graduating in the middle of the Senior year. If the plan should be 
adopted, our students would form two distinct sets, — those who would 
compress three and a half years' work into three years, and those who 
would spread three and a half years' work over four years. As both 
sets would be taught in the same classes, there could be no accommo- 
dation of the severity of the courses to either. The desire to do 
three and a half years' work in three years would tend to encourage 
the choice of studies which demand easier work or have less 
dangerous examinations. This evil already puts the courses which 
demand severe and continuous work at a serious disadvantage, and it 
is unavoidably aggravated by the close competition for scholarships. 
Everything which strengthens this tendency, or makes it more widely 
spread, is a direct discouragement to our higher scholarship. 

It can hardly be expected that the more studious undergraduates 



18 

would work harder if the ordinary term of residence were reduced to 
three years than they do now. They would then merely distribute 
the same amount of work over a greater number of courses each 
year, and thus receive the degree for three years of work instead 
of four. The plan would invite the student to sacrifice thoroughness 
for the sake of passing each year in the largest permissible number 
of courses. A given amount of work would count more towards the 
degree if spread over six courses than if devoted to more thorough 
mastery of four. No extra studies would then be taken. The tempta- 
tion, further, to choose courses with a view to the ease of passing in 
them rather than for their educational advantage would be consider- 
ably increased. We believe, therefore, that the reduction of work for 
the better students who would take their degree in three years would 
prove to be nearer a fourth than a ninth. Those, on the other hand, 
who would remain in College four years could hardly be benefited by 
a reduction of the courses of study. This applies particularly to 
the large and important class who have no marked taste for study and 
are not specially industrious, and who need especial care to preserve 
them from the temptations of college life. The Faculty can give this 
care most effectively by providing them with sufficient and regular occu- 
pation. That the amount of occupation given at present is none too 
great is proved by this very proposition to have a large part of the 
students take five courses in each 3'ear (instead of four courses in 
each of the last three years, as at present) in order to graduate in 
three years, and by the fact that able men have taken the present 
eighteen courses with credit in three years, and have still had time to 
be prominent in athletics. Most of the less studious men, however, 
would take four years for the degree under the proposed sixteen -course 
system, and this would give them four courses instead of the present 
five in the Freshman year, and only three courses and a fraction 
instead of the present four and a fraction in some later year. It is 
plain that greater opportunities for idleness and dissipation would 
thus be offered. 

An argument for the proposed plan is sometimes sought in the 
much-quoted statistics which show that the growth of American col- 
leges has not kept pace with the increase in population. When we 
consider the nature of this increase, it would be surprising if it had 
done so. But all this does not concern Harvard College in the least. 
The number of our undergraduates has trebled since 1860, while the 
population of the United States has only doubled. This shows, 
among other things, that our higher requisitions have attracted stu- 
dents, not repelled them, and that the American public does not 



19 

think our present standard too high. It can hardly be that we are 
asked to make this change in the interest of other colleges which have 
not kept up with the growth of the country. Certainly these colleges 
do not appear to be making any very vigorous calls upon us for this- 
kind of aid. 

Indeed, it is hard to see whence an}" strong demand for a reduction 
of our course now comes, except from our own Medical Faculty. 
The statistics given in the report of the Committee of the Board of 
Overseers show how little the Medical School is really affected by 
the length of our college course. It appears, further, that the per- 
centage of students with academic degrees in the Medical School 
has steadily increased since 1874. In 1875-79 these were 31.6 
per cent; in 1880-84 they were 43.3 per cent; and in 1885-89 
they were 50.4 per cent. Our Medical School is surel}' not losing its- 
hold on college graduates. As to the fear that the College is to be 
" crowded out " of its place hj the professional schools above and 
the preparatory schools below, our professional schools have thus far 
given no ground for alarm ; and, as to pressure from below, we 
should be only too glad to see any signs of a disposition on the part 
of the preparatory schools to ' ' crowd ' ' the College out of any of its 
present elementary work. In view of our large and increasing classes, 
we see no reason whatever to believe that any considerable number of 
students are kept away from the College by the four-years' course. The 
only danger which now seems to us to threaten seriously the position 
of the College is the present proposal to curtail its courses of study. 

Even if it is necessary to gain another year for professional study, 
does not the notorious fact that most of our students now enter col- 
lege at or about nineteen, with merely the knowledge which they ought 
to have at seventeen, suggest a better solution of the problem than 
cutting down the Senior year ? The address delivered by President 
Eliot before the National Educational Association at Washington in 
1888 shows conclusively where not merely one year, but two years 
at least, are worse than wasted in our elementary schools. When we 
are told that Exeter Academy can demand of pupils who enter at the 
average age of more than sixteen nothing more than " some knowledge 
of common-school arithmetic, writing, spelling, and of the elements 
of English grammar," the whole melancholy story is told. If this is 
all that one of the best and largest of the endowed academies on 
which we depend for our students can expect of pupils whom they 
have still to prepare for college, what must be the requisitions of 
other less favored schools? Is it not mockery to ask young men 
who have been thus treated in boyhood to give up afterwards the 



20 

whole or a half of their last and best year in college in order to 
save time? B3' a combined effort of our colleges and preparatory 
schools a reform could be effected in the lower schools by which this 
disgrace would be removed. After stating the necessity for reducing 
the age at which students graduate at American colleges, President 
Eliot says : — 

"The first partial remedy that suggests itself is to reduce the 
average age of admission to college to eighteen. This reduction 
would save about a year. In effecting this saving of time it is 
greatly to be desired that no reduction should be made in the attain- 
ments which the average candidate for admission now brings to the 
American colleges ; for it is probable that the saving thus effected 
will not be sufficient in itself, and that the public interests will require 
in addition some shortening of the ordinary college course of four 
years. College men, therefore, are anxiously looking to see if the 
American school course can be both shortened and enriched ; short- 
ened so that our boys may come to college at eighteen instead of 
nineteen, and enriched in order that they may bring to college at 
eighteen more than they now bring at nineteen, so that the standard 
of the A.B. may not be lowered." 

It will be noticed that this looks forward to two changes, a reduc- 
tion of the age of admission, and an eventual reduction of the col- 
lege course, both to be effected by much needed reforms in school 
education tvithout lovjering the standard of the Bachelor's degree. 

It is sometimes urged, that this plan will benefit the Graduate 
School, in which all friends of the higher education take the warmest 
interest. Anything which would increase the number of graduates 
pursuing advanced studies at this University would certainly be most 
welcome to us all. But it is not easy to see how the change of name 
of the same students from Seniors to Graduates is to effect this end. 
Whatever m2ij be the amount of reduction of the college course, 
either in time or efficiency, the value of the Graduate student will be 
reduced by the same amount. If, for example, we should dismiss 
250 or 300 Juniors next June as Bachelors of Arts, and then receive 
back fifty or sixty of them in October as Graduate students, to pur- 
sue essentially the same studies which they would have had as 
Seniors, how great would be the gain to the higher education? If 
any sudden accession is to come to the Graduate School from cutting 
off the Senior year, it will consist chiefly of students who will differ 
little in their scholarship from the present Seniors. 

An appeal is sometimes made to the example of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge in support of the present scheme, in the belief that the 
Bachelor's degree is regularl}' taken at both of these universities in 



21 

three years or less. At Oxford only one of the 131 who graduated 
in Literae Humaniores in June, 1889, took his degree in three 
years : 6 graduated in three years and a half, and 2 in five years, 
while 122 remained four full years, having entered in October, 1885.* 
These are what we should term full academic years of college study. 
Of 72 (in alphabetical order) of those who took the pass degree in 
1889 at Oxford, 48 (or two thirds) were four full years in college, 
9 remained one or two terms beyond three years, and 15 remained 
three years. At Cambridge, where an old statute still limits the 
time of residence for the degree to three years, it is well under- 
stood that no one who expects to gain credit as a student or to 
graduate with honor ever comes to the university with merely the 
preparation for admission actually required by the colleges. All such 
students secure at least one year of additional study at school before 
entering. Most of the best colleges at Oxford now practically require 
an additional year's study of honor students through high examina- 
tions for admission, which are intended to exclude " pass-men" ; and 
four of the six who took the Oxford degree in Literae Humaniores in 
1889 in three years and a half came from colleges of this class. The 
English universities have thus practically abandoned the policy upon 
which it is now proposed that Harvard College shall enter as an 
experiment. 

It is difficult to see how this plan can be called ' ' a cautious 
experiment." A sudden reversal of the traditions of the College, even 
though the backward movement were very slight at first, could be no 
mere experiment. It would be a step on an entirely new road, and 
one which it would be almost impossible to retrace. It would also 
inaugurate a new and most dangerous polic}^, for the College is now 
asked for the first time to cut off a part of its best education to 
regain time which has been worse than wasted in the lower schools, 

* The school of the Literae Humaniores, the ancient classical school with 
which the Oxford degree with honors is chiefly associated, is taken as the fairest 
representative of Oxford scholarsliip. But even in the next largest school, that 
of Modern History (established in 1873), where there is a different standard and 
little or no account can be taken of studies pursued before entering college, a 
majority (a very large majority of the better candidates) study four years. Of 
108 graduates of this school in 1889, whose history in college can be traced, 61 
studied four years or more, 7 studied three years and one or two terms, and 40 
studied three years. Of the forty who passed in three years, all but eight are 
found in the third and fourth (the two lowest) classes, which shows that the 
three-year men fall below the standard set for the degree. 

Our colleges fortunately have no class corresponding to English "pass-men," 
who have both instruction and examinations distinct from the other students. 



22 



while there is no hint of any attempt to strike at the real cause of our 
delays in education. We feel, indeed, that the consequences of the 
proposed step would be so momentous to the welfare of this and 
other colleges and to the whole community, that it ought not to be 
taken without the hearty and almost unanimous concurrence of aU 
•the boards which have the fate of Harvard College in their hands. 



J. D. WHITNEY, 
F. J. CHILD, 
JOSIAH P. COOKE, 
C. C. EVERETT, 
W. W. GOODWIN, 
BENNETT H. NASH, 
C. J. WHITE, 
N. S. SHALER, 
EREDERIC D. ALLEN, 
W. G. EARLOW, 
CHARLES L. JACKSON, 
W. M. DAVIS, 
HENRY B. HILL, 
W. S. CHAPLIN, 



W. E. BYERLY, 

EPHRAIM EMERTON, 

EDWARD L. MARK, 

ADOLPHE COHN, 

S. M. MAC VANE, 

L. B. R. BRIGGS, 

E. H. HALL, 

B. O. PEIRCE, 

GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE, 

FREEMAN SNOW, 

P. B. MARCOU, 

OLIVER W. HUNTINGTON, 

ALBERT A. HOWARD, 

G. P. BAKER. 



xDi^MKT uh LUNURESS 



029 934 356 fl 



